Knitting Tips

I’ve been thinking…I know, that’s always dangerous. But seriously, as I work on a knit project, I develop ideas that make knitting better , easier, and faster, and I never see these ideas in books. So I thought I would start a list here. These came to me last night while teaching a class on Toe-up Socks. I’ll add more tips as I think of them.

1. When using 2 circular needles to knit socks, be careful not to create a ‘fake’ stitch when shifting from the back needle to the front needle. (This is easy to do if the yarn is in front when it should be in the back. I know; I’ve done it.)

2. Coming to a K2tog direction, the second st of the two is often too tight, which makes it difficult to insert the right needle. To rectify the situation, insert the right needle into the st as if to purl and lift the st up a bit; then remove the right needle and reenter the first and second sts to knit them together.

3. In stranded 2-color work (Fair Isle), we try to keep the stranded color loose enough on the back so the fabric lies flat. This can create loops of extra yarn on the fabric’s back side, which is OK until you knit into them in the following row. Knitting those loops in the next round pulls the loops to the right side of the fabric, creating stitches that are too large, or at least larger than the stitches on either side. The cure: Work at the needle tips, and avoid stretching the loop out as you pull the loop through.